Dr Toni Obrador (1950 – 2006)
“Of every friendless name the friend”
‘On the Death of Dr Robert Levet’
Samuel Johnson
I suppose that death felt proud,
On having a doctor in his sights.
Perhaps he hoped for revenge
On an antagonist who had thwarted him,
Patient after patient,
Year after year,
Time and time again.
Had this doctor cringed, head down, beaten,
In a corner cowering,
Or under the bedclothes hiding,
Waiting for the blow,
Death might have boasted then,
But no.
He worked quietly on,
Methodically.
He went to his hospital as before,
And took care of his patients,
Day by day.
He made death wait,
Wait outside in the corridor,
While with his smile
He gently invited his patients in,
One by one.
And then when he had done,
There was no drama.
He gave death a day and an hour at the end of the year,
Without complaint.
Patients, research, articles, congresses,
All at an end now, all gone,
The last appointment over.
But how well he did it all.
How well it was done!